Portable pit



Aug. 29, 1950 G.O.HOFFSTETTER PORTABLE PIT Filed July 29, 1946 I III I I 1! 1/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIU I 11117 Patented Aug. 29, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT F Fl CE PORTABLE PIT George 0. Hoflstetter, Jerseyville, Ill.

Application July 29, 1946, Serial No. 686,921 2 Claims. (Cl. is9 34) This invention relates to a removable conveyor pit.

An object of this invention is to provide a pit for insertion beneath a railroad track so that the material may be dumped from a car into the pit and then conveyed by means of a portable conveyor to a truck or the like. In this manner the car can be unloaded at any selected point on a siding, thus eliminating the necessity of shunting the car to an overhead track associated with a bin or the like.

Another object of this invention is to provide a pit for a portable conveyor which can be shifted from point to point, it being only necessary to dig beneath the tracks between a pair of ties and then insert the pit so that the car can be dumped between the tracks and the material promptly removed.

A further object of this invention is to provide a portable pit of this kind which is of simple and strong construction and can be applied and removed in a very short time.

With the above and other objects in view, my invention consists in the arrangement, combination and details of construction disclosed in the drawings and specification, and then more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a detail top plan of a portable conveyor pit constructed according to an embodiment of this invention,

Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the device,

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Referring to the drawing, the numerals I0 and II designate a pair of railroad rails which are mounted on cross ties I2, I3. In order to provide a means whereby a railroad car may be dumped at a point where there is no permanent pit or bin, I have provided a portable conveyor pit of trough-like construction, generally designated as I4. The pit I4 includes vertically disposed side walls I5 having a bottom It fixed thereto.

The side walls I5 converge toward one end or back of the pit and at the small end an upwardly and outwardly extending end wall I1 is secured to the side walls I5. The side walls I5 also have extending inwardly therefrom a pair of reinforcing flanges I8, I9, which are shorter in length than the upper edges of the side walls and these side walls are also reinforced for the remainder of their lengths by outwardly extending flanges 2|], 2|.

The pit I4 is also reinforced or strengthened by means of substantially U-shaped angle bars having vertical sides 22 fixed to the outer sides of the side walls I5, and also having bights 23 extending across the open upper side of the pit I4. The large open end 24 of the pit is adapted to have extending thereinto, the lower receiving end of an endless conveyor 25.

In the use of this pit, the space between the two ties I2, l3, which have been shifted sideways to form a wide spacing, is hollowed out so that the pit I4 can be inserted between the two ties I2, I3, and below the rails I0, I I. The open end 24 of the pit I4 is disposed on the desired side of the track so that the conveyor 25 may be extended into the open end 24 for removing the material discharged :into the pit.

With the construction as hereinbefore described, the railroad car can be dumped on any siding and the material promptly removed from beneath the car. This pit will, with a portable conveyor, provide a means for reducing mileage in trucking the material received from the railroad car and will facilitate the unloading of the car as the material can be removed by the conveyor as soon as the pit I4 becomes substantially filled. After the car has been emptied, the pit may be removed and the hollowed space re-filled with the roadbed material.

I do not mean to confine myself to the exact details of construction herein disclosed, but claim all variations falling within the purview of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A conveyor pit for insertion beneath a railroad track, comprising a trough-like structure formed with a plane bottom, vertical side walls secured to said bottom and converging toward one end, a back wall extended across the convergent ends of said side walls to form a closed end, said back wall being inclined upwardly and outwardly from said bottom, said side walls being formed with top edges converging toward said bottom to form an open end disposed from said back wall of lesser height relative to said closed end, said top edges being formed with inwardly extending right angular flanges having terminating ends disposed from said closed end, a substantially U-shaped brace disposed from said closed end and positioned exteriorly of said side walls having a top portion connecting said top edges adjacent said terminating flange ends, and outwardly extending right angular flanges carried by said edges and extending from said U- shaped brace to said open end.

2. A conveyor pit as claimed in claim 1 having an intermediate U-shaped brace engaging the side walls forwardly of the back wall and rearwardly of the first mentioned U-shaped brace.

GEORGE O. HOFFSTETTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 63,139 Clark Mar. 26, 1867 1,031,407 Williams July 2, 1912 1,160,748 Natale Nov. 16, 1915 1,544,774 Plant July 7, 1925 1,971,716 Hitchcock Aug. 28, 1934 2,112,420 Lunda Mar. 29, 1938 

